Seizing the moment

The points are starting to come.

Fourteen points is a decent total for a guy who prides himself on playing a solid two-way game. But the number that excited Tyler Bozak the most is four. Not four, as in the number of goals he has, but four, as in plus-4.

Last season Bozak was the Toronto Maple Leafs most unreliable defensive performer finishing a very chilly minus-29. Never mind the fact he started the year as the team’s No. 1 centre and wasn’t able to play at that level quite yet, or that his points-per-game average dipped from .73 in his first year in the league, to .40 last season.

Quite simply, there’s no way Bozak was going to command ice time commensurate with his skill and ability if he continued to be a defensive liability.

"I spent the summer in Denver and trained with guys I used to play with out there," Bozak said of his off-season approach. "We went five days a week really hard. I felt I got a lot stronger and I think it’s helping me this season. I wasn’t happy with the way last year finished.

"I wasn’t too upset with my points (15 goals, 32 points). I thought it was a decent amount, but my plus-minus was a huge thing that I was worried about so I wanted to focus on my defensive game and try not to cheat. My hope was that offence would come from good defence."

Bozak opened the season as Toronto’s third-line centre. The hope was he would find his niche as a checker, but also provide the Maple Leafs with some secondary scoring.

The Maple Leafs signed Tim Connolly, who spent the past nine seasons skating with the Buffalo Sabres after being picked fifth overall in 1999 by the New York Islanders, in the hopes he’d be the team’s No. 1 centre.

It was a risky transaction given Connolly has been frequently injured the past six seasons.

Sure enough Connolly – who has played very well when he has been healthy this season – suffered a shoulder injury at practice recently and began the year on the injured reserve list.

Enter Bozak.

Promoted to the top line once again to skate between Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul, Bozak has proven himself to be up for the task. Kessel leads the NHL in scoring while Lupul, playing the best hockey of his career, is tied for third.

"Right from the time I first got here, I thought he was a skilled player," Lupul said. "Right now he’s doing some more little things well and getting rewarded. I think he’s going to the front of the net a little harder and a little more confidently than he was before.

"I think he’s figured out what he has to do to be successful in this league and now it’s the same for all of us; we have to figure out how to do it over a long period," he added. "It’s been 22 games and everything has been great, but now it’s a mater of expanding that over the remaining three-quarters of the season."

It is a big responsibility centering two of the top three scorers in the league. And while Bozak is counted on for production, he also has to be the defensive conscience on the line and, also winning faceoffs are paramount. He struggled on the draw early in the year because he had a sore hand, but has gotten better as the injury healed.

"It has gotten a lot better the past five or six games so hopefully I can keep it going the rest of the year," he said. "You obviously want to be one of the guys who is out there in the last minute when you’re down a goal, or down in the other end, too, when you’re up a goal.

"We want to generate a lot of chances off the cycle and I think you have to be stronger on the puck to do that," Bozak added. "Watching (Lupul) play, seeing how strong he is in the corners and how he holds guys off; that’s helped us create a lot of chances for goals."

At 6-foot-1 and 195 points, Bozak has decent size, but he’ll never be mistaken for Joe Thornton or Vinny Lecavalier. Still, he has to play against bigger players, both forwards and defenceman, relying on his speed and intelligence.

"I think a lot of it is timing," he said. "I’m not going to win a lot of strength-on-strength battles against some of the big defencemen in our league, so it’s all about body position – getting to the puck first and shielding it and trying to protect it as best as you can."

Lupul has said he realized last summer that getting the opportunity to play with a star of Kessel’s stature might be his last chance to achieve the credibility that has eluded him throughout his career.

Similarly, the chance for Bozak to play with Kessel and Lupul is also a golden opportunity for a relatively inexperienced player to swiftly take his game to the next level.

"It’s huge," Bozak said. "When you have two wingers like that on either side of you they make the game a lot easier for you and you pick up a lot of points."

Tuesday in Tampa Bay Kessel hit the scoresheet just once, with an assist.

Bozak, meanwhile, scored his third and fourth goals of the year, added an assist and was plus-2.

"Phil is going to score most nights like he has this year, but it’s nice that we can fill the void when on one night they don’t go in for him," Bozak said. "I thought he still played a good game giving me and (Lupul) lots of chances."

It’s hard to say what will happen when injured centre Mikhail Grabovski returns to the lineup.

Having Bozak, Connolly and Grabovski gives the Leafs decent depth at the centre position, and the case could be made all three of them deserve top two line minutes.

"Bozie is skating really hard right now and there’s probably a sense of desperation or urgency in his game," said Leafs coach Ron Wilson. "Last year it was like, no matter how he played he was going to be in the lineup because we weren’t very deep. He knows Grabo is only out for another week, if that long, and he’s competing as hard as he can to stay on that line.

"I’m rewarding him by keeping him on that line because Tim Connolly seems to be able to play with anybody and make them better."

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy will cover the Toronto Maple Leafs for sportsnet.ca for the 2011/12 season.